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Flint Takes Steps To Fight New Emergency Manager

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FLINT (WWJ/AP) – Flint is taking steps to fight the appointment of a new emergency manager, with City Council claiming the city’s financial standing has improved.

The Flint Journal reports City Council on Thursday night decided to ask Gov. Rick Snyder for a hearing. City Council President Scott Kincaid said the city’s financial condition has changed significantly since Snyder appointed former manager Michael Brown in December, and the city no longer qualifies for a manager.

The governor’s office said Friday that progress has been made in Flint but there’s more work to do.

A board this week appointed Ed Kurtz as Flint’s new emergency manager.

Emergency managers were appointed by the governor to turn around poor cities and schools and equipped with sweeping authority to cut spending, sell assets and tear up contracts without the approval of elected officials.

Michigan voters will get the chance this fall to repeal Public Act 4, the state’s emergency manager, law after a bipartisan panel agreed Wednesday to place the measure on the ballot against Snyder’s wishes.

The law, which Snyder signed into law last year, is currently suspended, and administration officials have said an older law granting managers fewer powers replaces it.